Mom's War Letters

I have been exploring my Mom's WWII Letters to my Dad. They are fascinating  because she is very descriptive about local Brisbane war activities.  I knew that she sang for the troops and on radio during the war, but had no idea that she usually sang 3-5 days a week, sometimes twice a day!   Below is part of a letter she wrote a couple weeks before they were married.  

July 29, 1943 – I’m getting my dress made by a very clever friend of ours who has a dress shop in town.  She doesn’t usually make them, but will do it for me.  Barbara is going to get a frock from her too.  Probably blue (if possible) that she can wear as an evening frock afterwards, so I somehow think it should be a rather pretty wedding.  I bought a lovely new coat today too, to go with my travelling frock.  I’m rather lucky to get it although it takes 27 coupons, but Daddy doesn’t need many clothes, so is giving me most of his. 

July 30, 1943 - My bridal gown I think will be very lovely, made of satin with an embroidered yoke.  I’m going to have a small veil & if possible natural flowers built up over it. 

Chocolate Wheel at Liberty week stall, Queen Street, Brisbane

July 29, 1943 -Today they had a chocolate wheel for the patriotic fund near the Civic Theatre & were rather short of workers, so I went down to help them in my lunch hour.  I only did three quarters of an hour at it, but it’s certainly hot work.  Although the day was very cool, before long we had shed our cardigans & were in short sleeves, but were still hot.  I guess there were about fifty people round the wheel & I was selling tickets, going from one to the other & they are all wanting them at once, I have never done so much running round in my life.  However, it should be good exercise, in my opinion tennis has got nothing on that game.

While I think of it, don’t forget to bring our permission to get hitched when you come, otherwise they might refuse to do the job.
I will close now.  I love you now & always.  Goodnight dearest, Coral

Joys of past month.

View from my front yard of a double rainbow!

Niko working on sander

Faye and Maceo working on fence

Macro and Nathan drilling holes and screwing in screws to repair fence.  My job was on other side to hold slat in place

I have included notes below that I wrote in last month, but never added to blog.  I'm not sure they will excite you too much, but here they are.  I was blessed that Faye and the boys came and helped me work on fence one day.  They did a great job.  Drilling and adding screws to loose slats was the favorite job!  Thanks guys!

3/27/12  I’ve decided that I will write down what I do each day.  I’m not sure if I’ll post it, we’ll see.  I’ve felt that I have so much catch up stuff to do around the house.  Things that we had to let go and not stay on top of when Julian was sick and I feel that I’m not doing a good job in working on little jobs.  So, maybe this will either keep me encouraged to make progress each day, or help me remember what I actually do.  It’s not like I’m sitting around all day reading a book, painting my fingernails and drinking wine, so maybe I’m doing more than I really think.  Today I went to the gym (the 2^nd time in about 3 months), soaked all the faucet heads that have calcium buildup with vinegar, blew off the back patio, worked on cleaning out 2 years of grass etc in the area under my backyard orange tree, took out  bulbs that are burned out on back patio and took them to lighting store for replacements, did a load of laundry, I went to the hardware store and bought some sandpaper and started sanding the back side of our beautiful redwood fence that stands on the outside of the carport.  This was a creation of Julian’s and I love it.  I’ve refinished the carport side, but the backside actually needs sanding and finishing.  I then replaced the halogen bulb in one of the back porch lights, but found that the other flood light has burned out and the whole light needs replaced.  I then tried to replace the lights in the carport fixture which has been burned out for about a year.  I got the cover off, dropped one of the screws, swept the carport hoping to find it but didn’t.  I then looked in my home hardware store, found a screw which seemed the same size.  I tried to put it in, but it was a little too big and so got stuck.  There I am holding the cover up with my head and couldn’t get the screw out.  What a sight that was.  The mailman came up and offered to try to get it out.  He was able to do so.  I then found a screw that fit, got it in, but then couldn’t get the other one in.  I’ve decided that that cover is a pain in the butt and not worth the Frank Lloyd Wrightean style that Julian loved.  I will either replace the cover if possible or get a whole new fixture that is easier to replace bulbs.  There, that was my day.  I just had a cup of tea and dark chocolate cookie and all is good with the world.

3/28/12  Janice, Mom and I went on a South Phoenix memory tour today.  We had lunch at the farm at South Mountains.  It is located in an old Pecan Grove on 32St , South of Southern.  Lunch was great.  They have really good sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts.  We ate at a picnic table under a pecan tree.  Then we drove west on Baseline which used to have Japanese flower gardens and citrus groves.  All the flower gardens and citrus are gone, replaced by upscale homes.  They didn’t even keep any of the trees, just chopped them down.  At least in my current neighborhood, they built the houses, but kept the trees, so it still retains the feel of the grove.  My home feels closer to how South Phoenix was than the current South Phoenix is.  Anyway,  The Farm at South Mountain retains the rural, agricultural feel of the South Phoenix I grew up in.  We were hoping to stop at Watanabe’s flower garden at 7^th Ave and Baseline, but it was abandoned, closed up, sad.  Then we drove by our house and the trailer court where Janice lived.  They were both very sad to see.  The trailer court is run down, the pool gone, the old farmhouse is no longer there and the yard around our house is all gravel.  They let everything die. Our barn where we had the 200 chickens is still there.  I knew that that was how things were, but Janice wanted to see our old stomping grounds.  We drove down Carter to get to Central.  Carter is exactly the same, large, lush irrigated lots with mostly well kept houses.  That felt good.  We went back to my house and Janice and I picked and juiced oranges. 

3/29/12  Today I babysat Jules.  We ran around the house, danced and chased each other.  We went outside, both put on our garden gloves and Jules helped me trim the citrus and the Mexican Bird of Paradise. She really got into playing in the dirt and found the water in the rain barrel.  She got water and mud on her pretty pink sun dress, so I rinsed it out and hung it up in the sun.  I put her back in her monkey pj’s. She was tired and took a morning nap. 

 Then Mom (Grandma Coral) came over and played for awhile. 

  About 2pm she was acting really tired, so I put her down for a nap.  She stayed in there for a whole hour, playing happily, but I don’t think she ever slept.  Then she starts saying Nana, Nana!  Then she starts crying so I go in.  She looks up and smiles through her tears and says, “Naked!”  There she is, pants off, diaper on the floor, her shirt halfway on, but inside out and backwards!  It was so funny.  She actually wore me out today because she was so, so busy all day.   

We had afternoon tea.  I make her tea in a plastic mug (a little tea, mostly milk).  We sit at the table, she on the phone book duct tape covered booster.  We sip our tea, eat our cookies and dried mango and toast “Cheers” many times.  She loves saying Cheers and clicking our cups.  She gets that big sunny wonderful smile on her face.  She only spills a little once drinking out of a regular cup.  Then we go over across the street to look at the chickens (Mom and 5 or 6 babies).  Jules is mesmerized.  She gets to touch one chick and then is brave enough to hold another one in her hand.  We say “by, by, chickens” and go home.  The rest of the afternoon, she points to the palm of her hand, says chick or says, “by, by, chick, chick”.

Now I get to the hard part.  April 29 was the year anniversary of Julian's death.  It's hard missing him so much every day.  However, I often feel that he is my guardian Angel when I need it most and my continued best fan of the "Ayraud moments".  When I, the world or our politicians do something silly I hear his laugh and usually know exactly what he would say.  There have been a couple times when I was almost hit while driving and it feels that he is my guardian Angel then.  Just after his death I was visited by a quail.  It brightened my day then because he and I loved birds and we don't normally have quail in our yard.  Then about a week before April 29, the quail came back, just strolled into the front yard and hopped on the roof of the house (see above).  I think fondly of Julian because if he were to come back he would be wearing a hat as always and this quail has the best hat ever!  He has even stood on my window sill and looked in the window at me several times.  I hope he stays around, we'll see. I was talking to Kirsten about that time and she said that a male and female quail just came to her yard also.  They are really liking the wood from a felled tree and she thinks they might build a nest.  It made her feel good too after I told her how the my quail reminded me of her Dad.

Faye, Javier and Jules spent time with me on April 29 which was going above and beyond because that is also their anniversary.  I decided I wanted to go to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve and see the birds, so they went with me and then took me out to dinner.  I had kept Jules overnight a couple weeks ago and they spent the night at a hotel in downtown Phoenix.  They had such a great time.  So good in fact that Faye turned the water on in the bathtub and forgot about it.  Then all of a sudden she rememberd, ran into the bathroom and slipped in several inches of water on the floor!  I think I've seen a chick flick movie that had that scene in it.  Can't remember now what it was.  Anyway here are pictures from out little outing on April 29.